Comic books—or at least the characters from comic books—have never been more popular and mainstream than they are now. After decades of struggling to gain acceptance as a legitimate medium (often set to the cries of angst-ridden dudes like myself insisting that “they’re graphic novels, mom!”), they’ve no doubt made it to that point and beyond, as it’s become perfectly normal to see folks of all ages showing their allegiance to Marvel or DC properties. But before it became acceptable for a grown-ass adult to wander out into public wearing a Captain America shirt, these books first had to get over with teenagers. It’s easy to forget, but there was once a time when comic books were decidedly kid’s stuff that were put aside once adolescence (and all its raging hormones) hit. Marvel’s crucial line of thinking during its 60s revolution asked a simple question: what if they could keep those older readers around with tales reflecting their own struggles?
Never was this approach more obvious than it was with the creation of Peter Parker and his alter-ego Spider-Man, a teenage hero whose superpowers still can’t help him navigate the treacherous waters of high school. It’s a brilliant hook, and those early Spider-Man stories often feel like teenage melodramas where the protagonist just happens to have freakish abilities due to a radioactive spider-bite. So it’s appropriate, then, that SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING takes a similar approach in that it’s really a teen movie that also happens to be the latest entry in the Marvel Universe. And while that requires it to tick off certain boxes and adhere to certain expectations, this latest Spidey reboot feels like a breath of fresh-air on all accounts. Not only does it absolutely recapture the essence of Peter Parker and Spider-Man, but it’s also proof that this cinematic universe has room for smaller, intimate stories that don’t necessarily involve swarms of anonymous alien or robot hordes descending on cities.
Not that there’s anything wrong with those particular adventures (somehow, Marvel keeps churning them out quite successfully), but it’s nice to take a little bit of a break from it and hang out with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man as he figures out how to be a teenager and a superhero all at once. A quick recap of the events of CIVIL WAR—as captured by Peter’s camera and chatty narration—catches us up to speed before diving into his life in the wake of that superhero throw-down in Berlin. Because he’s Peter Parker, life didn’t suddenly improve, as he spends most of his school days waiting for that final bell to ring so he can go about his superhero routine in the hopes that Tony Stark will grant him full-time membership into The Avengers.
His calls and texts to handler Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau, delightfully reprising his role) go unanswered, and he’s not exactly lighting it up on the streets anyway, as his heroic intentions often result in mishaps. Even worse, he’s still a totally anonymous dweeb at school, known mostly for hanging out with equally dorky Ned (Jacob Batalon), his best friend who’s mostly interested in putting together a Lego Death Star playset. Such a reputation does him no favors with bully Flash Thompson (Tony Revolori) or popular senior Liz (Laura Harrier).
HOMECOMING wisely commits to acknowledging Peter’s rough life without overdoing it. That is one of the hallmarks of Spider-Man after-all: it kind of sucks to be Spider-Man. When he’s not doing his best to rid the neighborhood of crime, he’s constantly letting everyone down, whether it’s the academic decathlon team (of course Liz is the captain) or his poor Aunt May (Marisa Tomei). Nothing ever quite goes right, and Peter’s constantly stuck in a no-win scenario: while his social life would certainly improve by revealing his secret identity, it would essentially doom everyone he cares about, and the screenplay highlights this particular agony, often to comedic effect. The comedy is key—again, HOMECOMING acknowledges but doesn’t dwell on Peter’s life sometimes being a bummer, portraying mostly as kind of loveable, earnest underdog, which is something we haven’t seen since the halcyon days of SPIDER-MAN 2. Certainly, it’s a far cry from Andrew Garfield’s more brooding, angsty turn in the previous reboot, a well-cast but ill-advised venture that promised ominous, “untold” histories without worrying about the story at-hand.
Director Jon Watts and a legion of screenwriters avoid such pitfalls by diving headlong into Spidey’s world. By now, the origin is old hat and wisely skipped right over (outside of a couple lines of dialogue), giving the audience a chance to soak in the pertinent details of Peter’s current life. They’ve picked exactly the right cast with which to take such an approach, too, as HOMECOMING coasts on the charms of its charismatic cast, particularly the set of high-schoolers. Previous films have obviously tackled Spidey in high school, yet it felt so cursory, if not a tad obligatory. Even Sam Raimi’s original (a film I love dearly) couldn’t quite find enough time to adequately capture this crucial part of Spider-Man lore. On the other hand, HOMECOMING has an ample amount of time, and has an added layer of authenticity since these kids actually feel like, you know, kids. We’re not dealing with established Hollywood names effectively going back to school, which tends to shatter the illusion. (I say this knowing full-well that 2002 was a different time, folks.)
Obviously, it starts up top with Holland, who has that perfect little immature streak to portray Peter as we’ve never quite seen him on-screen. He actually seems like a 15-year-old, what with that baby face and the infectious, hyperactive lilt in his voice. Holland is awkward without being cloying, making it a more effortless, natural performance than what we’ve seen from previous Spidey performers. Really, if there’s a word to describe HOMECOMING, it’s “genuine:” I buy everything about this Peter Parker: his joy, his struggles, his ambition to grow up and finally become the superhero he knows he can be. The latter is the crux of his internal struggle and feels like a heightened take on typical high school angst movies, and learning not to grow up too quickly is part of Peter’s arc here.
The cast around him makes that a pretty easy lesson to learn. Holland’s chemistry with Batalon is terrific, and between them, the two capture the range of being nerdy outcasts, from the thrill of having a girl even look into your direction to the agony of being caught at a party wearing a stupid fedora (seriously, maybe stop with the fedoras, guys). Most of the film’s comedy derives from their interactions with each other and the world surrounding them, and HOMECOMING is arguably the funniest Marvel effort to date, not only due to the typical witty banter and visual gags, but also because it’s constantly reveling in that squirmy zone of teenage awkwardness, where you often have to laugh to keep from crying. John Hughes’s name has been batted about as a reference point for HOMECOMING, and it mostly lives up to that billing (albeit with a much more diverse, multicultural cast, which is refreshing) by finding that perfect, perceptive sweet spot between absurd and didactic.
And like those movies, it deals a bit with clichés to do part of the character legwork, particularly as it relates to the smaller supporting roles, including most of the women. Thankfully, though, each is brought to life with distinctive, spirited turns. Liz is The Girl: smart, super popular, and certainly out of Peter’s league, but Harrier brings a sweet, grounded quality to a role that also has her acting as Peter’s conscience at various points. More than anything, Peter doesn’t want to let this girl down, yet he’s seemingly doomed to continually do so, and HOMECOMING frames it so that you’re disappointed for both him and her.
Other women in Peter’s life include Betty Brant (Angourie Rice), who mostly appears on the authentically great/terrible student school news program, and Michelle (Zendaya), a fellow oddball who claims to have no friends despite always hanging around. To update a common descriptor, she’s an extremely Woke Manic Pixie Dream Girl who wears Sylvia Plath shirts and plans time to make protests during a D.C. school trip. She’s a wry, sarcastic presence that gives HOMECOMING an appropriate sassiness, and it’s obvious the filmmakers have bigger plans for her down the road as this series progresses.
Of course, Spider-Man is never complete without Aunt May, and Tomei’s turn as a younger take on the character is basically embedded in the script, which features numerous lines about how everyone is smitten with her. It’s just good-natured enough that it doesn’t grate, and Tomei leans into playing a hip aunt. She’s motherly but doesn’t suffocate Peter, playing very much the part of that cool relative. Even if it makes for a different dynamic with this particular character, it’s totally worth it, if only because no other iteration of Aunt May would ever be able to pull off this film’s final line of dialogue.
While each Marvel movie features its share of wrinkles and tends to couch themselves into other genres, HOMECOMING feels like the first one in a while that breaks the mold. With its smaller, more intimate scale comes a different type of stakes. They’re perhaps not as immense as those found in more recent, world-breaking efforts, but they matter just the same, and the script deftly weaves them through the requisite superhero business once Peter crosses paths with Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton, clearly relishing the opportunity to play the villainous side of this coin) and his goons. If Toomes were an actual person, he’d perhaps be described as suffering from “economic anxiety,” as he sells recovered, black market alien gear from the fallout of other Marvel Universe scuffles. Recovering these was once his job, but Tony Stark’s newly-minted Damage Inc. took over, leaving him without a contract. In keeping with the rest of HOMECOMING, it’s a nice touch that allows for a villain with a human dimension, and some later developments cleverly intersect with Peter’s own intimate struggles. Imagine a teen comedy taking an ironic twist, only it also involves a dude wearing a mechanical vulture suit trying to coordinate an airplane heist.
Honestly, the character work here is so strong that the superhero theatrics feel like a bit of an afterthought. HOMECOMING’s action beats feel similar to previous Marvel Studios output, meaning the various scuffles between Spidey and Vulture’s goons are agreeably competent with a handful of inspired bursts. Most of them unfold at night and are a tad murkier than my eyes would have liked, and there’s a reason one of the film’s few daylight sequences—a ferry brawl that turns into a harrowing disaster rescue sequence—is the standout. Seeing this stuff with maximum clarity has its benefits, obviously. Watts does at least liven up the action with Spider-man’s trademark, motor-mouth banter (which is especially well-served once his suit activates a similarly loquacious A.I.), and I love that Peter’s not particularly great at being Spider-Man yet. He’s not able to simply sling webs with impunity, nor can he just effortlessly brawl his way out of every situation. A sequence involving the Washington Monument exploits his inexperience: where previous films might have used it to showcase Peter’s powers, Watts sees it as an opportunity to generate tension as the Wall-Crawler struggles to simply scale the immense structure.
That vision of a somewhat grounded, genuine take on Spider-Man is effuses throughout HOMECOMING, a film that captures the spirit of the character’s early appearances by realizing its basic appeal. Peter Parker and Spider-Man is compelling because he’s one of us; that he can shoot webs and stick to walls is incidental. Perhaps nothing is more fitting than a film that functions primarily as a high school coming-of-age dramedy with the superhero stuff acting as an embellishment.
Even the film’s place in the larger Marvel Universe is realized rather seamlessly, as this one doesn’t feel have one eye trained towards the larger, INFINITY WAR-sized horizon. . Placing Hogan as a go-between contact for Pete and Tony Stark is a welcome, brilliant little touch that’s mined for further human, and Downey’s brief appearances are warranted. HOMECOMING takes everything that’s happened to Stark over the course of a decade and plays it off wonderfully by positioning him almost as an Uncle Ben surrogate. Peter’s lesson that “with great power comes great responsibility” is a rite of passage for these things, and this latest take relays the message without making it too explicit and pandering.
If nothing else, HOMECOMING reveals just how natural this entire endeavor feels now. We’re a long way from Agent Coulson and Black Widow being wedged into IRON MAN 2 to awkwardly wink and nod to future installments and the promise of something bigger. Like ANT-MAN before it, this installment insists on going smaller, though it’s the first where it doesn’t feel like the tail is wagging the dog. HOMECOMING is content to hang out in its tiny corner of the Marvel sandbox, where the biggest thrills come from watching Peter score a date or seeing Spidey bounce through New York rooftops to the thrashing chords of “Blitzkrieg Bop” (a side note: I dig how this one makes an effort to bring a little character to the city New York itself).
When Marvel announced they’d struck a deal to integrate Spider-Man into its universe, there was a sentiment that he was saved from the clutches of overbearing studio heads who didn’t get the character. Marvel has delivered on that promise and then some by simply allowing Spider-Man to simply be Spider-Man again without overwrought, convoluted origin stories looking to retrace familiar steps. Even better, HOMECOMING is equally concerned with allowing Peter Parker to come into his own again in a story that feels impossibly fresh considering it’s both the 16th MCU film and the second Spider-Man reboot in five years.
— BRETT GALLMAN.
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